Four Northern Flickers
By the time I almost finished my morning hike, I hadn't planned on processing my photos, much less posting a report, but an interesting bird changed my mind. It's been really wet here this year in central Virginia. Charlottesville, about 10 miles to the east, has had its 4th wettest year on record, and if the 1 to 2 inches of rain forecasted for this afternoon through tomorrow evening exceeds 1.03 inches, 2018 will move into the 3rd position. Here in Crozet, we have had even more rain. Nestled at the eastern edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains, storms moving in from the east get backed up at the mountains, and storms from the west that get backed up on the west side of the mountains, often come through Rockfish Gap and dump rain on Crozet. With rain forecasted to start at 1:30 this afternoon, I decided to hike here in Old Trail. By the time I had almost finished a hike through Western Park, I had logged 17 avian species under dark and cloudy skies.
Four Northern Flickers
Downy Woodpecker
White-crowned Sparrow
Red-shouldered Hawk
And then I stopped. I thought I might have a rare Snow Bunting in a tree in the park! But when I got my camera on the bird and got it in focus, I could see that it was a highly leucisitc American Goldfinch. By comparison, I have also posted a photo of a normal American Goldfinch that I took this morning.
Highly leucisitc American Goldfinch
Highly leucisitc American Goldfinch
Highly leucisitc American Goldfinch
American Goldfinch
I then headed over to the area around the golf course pond, adding two more species to the day's total, and headed for home at 11:30 when it started to rain.
House Finch
White-breasted Nuthatch